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Campus celebrates Native America
Women’s cross country captain breaks record
News, page 2
WHO’S NEWS Student confident about award
Sports, page 3
CityTimes
Volume 62, Number 6
Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
Tight budget doesn’t stop DSPS Program
Benjamin Cruz City Times Most people who never finish high school, let alone not attend it, return years later for a GED, get a job and live their life. B u t that is not the case for T if fany Williams w h o never w e n t to high school Tiffany Willams at all. S o m e years after the 8th grade, she earned her GED and decided to go to City college. Now, she may very well be City college’s first student ever to be nominated for the International Scholar Laureate Program. “I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa and was nominated for the National Dean’s List for 2006-2007, and the Dean’s List then nominated me for the ISLP,” Williams said. “John from EOPS said he’s only seen the ISLP on a university level.” It will give her the opportunity to go to another country and understand their social and economical perspectives, and study the international relationship between the U.S. and those nations. As a political science major, Williams said she would like to travel to Australia and study their parliament, which is offered in the ISLP. Though not an Associated Students officer, she attends regular meetings and is very involved in the school. “I know Francisco Fabian (previous student president) and Clemente Valdez (current student president), I’m not in the Associated Students, but I’m involved with the school as much as possible. I am in Trio-Aspire, EOPS and other
INDEX News/Calendar........................... 2 Sports........................................3
November 13, 2007
Katie Dunn City Times
Cari Arthur City Times
Campus marks Day of the Dead Dia de los Muertos display from Professor Orozco-Toops’s class.
Walk/run held to benefit college’s Fitness Center Whitney Lawrence City Times A bright, dewy early Nov. 10 at Morley Field served as the backdrop while hundreds gathered, talking and stretching, exuding the kind of electric energy that only runners possess at seven in the morning. Not a cup of coffee in sight. City College Fitness Center sponsored its annual 3 mile walk/ run fundraiser and hosted the San Diego Cross Country Championship race on Nov. 10. All proceeds directly benefit the fitness center. “I really want to provide the fitness center with a monitor for scrolling announcements, where we can post fitness tips and upcoming events,” Fitness Center Director Paul Greer said. Patti Tuffley, an adjunct professor at City, worked the registration table of the event and said that by 8 a.m. about 300 people had signed up to run. “I volunteered because I work at the fitness center. The proceeds we raise for this event basically help to enhance student’s
performance and experience at the fitness center,” Tuffley said. “And we have a great day for it.” The day kicked off at 7:30 a.m. with the walk/run. Open to the community, about 20 people participated, most of which were City faculty and students who paid $10 to join the race. Each participant received a race souvenir (bracelets donning “San Diego City College Fitness Center,” and Naked Juice set up a tent to provide the runners with healthy natural juice before and after their races, a complimentary service. Juan Guzman, a City student, finished in first place and said though he runs on his own in his spare time, he was really there “for the extra credit, honestly.” City College biology professor Paul Kingston placed second and said, “I’m here to help raise funds for the fitness center, and for personal enjoyment.” Another City College student, Carl Quesada, said he heard about the race in his health class and ended up coming in third place.
See RUN, page 2
Financial cutbacks in Calif. four years ago may have discouraged some programs, but at City College the Disabled Student Center, or DSPS Program, couldn’t be more alive and progressive. The DSPS graduation rate has more than doubled in the past year, and counselors are now taking on multiple jobs to accommodate the program and its students. “The bulk of the money [we receive] goes to salaries and [employee] benefits,” said Barbara Mason, Program Coordinator of DSPS, when explaining how money is allocated throughout the program. “We don’t do a whole lot until the end of the year when we decide how many more months of salaries and benefits have we got, and what’s left.” Lack of resources prevents the office from properly staffing itself and stretches the remaining funds as far as possible to cover all expenses. With the student population rising, Mason aims to hire two more counselors when funding becomes available. She is not sure at this point how soon that will be. Though the funding is disabling the program from hiring new officials, the employees are upbeat and positive, which contributes to the success of each student. Regardless of funding or situations, the office cannot turn away any student who needs their services and does everything possible to accommodate their needs. “I think students here get exactly what they need in relation to their education,” said DSPS Counselor, Brian Stochert, who also teaches private DSPS classes. Stochert’s technique has reformed the way classes are taught and propelled its student forward. He would like to see more classes in the program, but with lack of counselors they can’t expand. “It’s not just about students with disabilities, it’s about why people don’t learn and why they can’t get from point A to point B.”
“Our funding is based upon the number of DSPS students we have and what disability they have,” said Mason “So, there’s a range, your visually impaired and your hard of hearing pay big bucks, and then it goes down to those disabilities that don’t pay much but need a lot of attention.” The less apparent the disability, the further down on the totem pole of funding. The visually impaired number of students is on the rise at City, but Mesa College is now leading in funding for DSPS programs and has the largest amount of hearing impaired students. DSPS classes are designed to help students more thoroughly understand material given in core classes and apply concepts to help them retain information. Recently, DSPS been working with faculty in different departments to help strengthen their teaching as well as to learn how they can more actively help their disabled students. Debra Wright-Howard, Access Technology Specialist, has accelerated the program by developing new innovative ways to accommodate disabled students using technology. For example, as sign language interpreters are hard to find and employ, Wright-Howard has found a way to link interpreters across the states to students in classrooms using live feeds on their computers. When students are enrolled in the program they have access to private testing rooms longer test times, technologically advanced equipment and personal support. There are four rooms in the office for testing and when used, each requires a proctor. They all contain laptops and other equipment to assist in the testing. The employees working for the DSPS program are not just working for a paycheck, but for the benefit of their students. Stochert stated, “Instead of being on the sidelines and being segregated from the rest of the students, I think people need to realize, you have people with disabilities on your faculty, on your administration, not just your students - and they need attention.”